Let’s say we’re at the deadline and clearly the team is faltering with the only silver lining being that JB is clearly the future of the franchise rather than Tatum as we all expected (look at Tatum’s pass to JB when the pressure was on rather than risking missing a game winning shot opportunity against the Pistons back-to-back...JB nailed it and then with no real pressure Tatum took a shot knowing a tie was the worst that could happen...JB is clearly the alpha now and Tatum is the pretender).
Would you be open to the following trade, and spending next offseason trying to find a number three guy to pair with JB and Doncic:
https://tradenba.com/trades/wTjFdoPq1To DAL:
Tatum
Smart
‘21 BOS 1st
‘23 BOS 1st
‘25 BOS 1st
‘21 DAL 1st (Via NYK)
To NYK:
Walker
To BOS:
Doncic (perhaps has some sort of issue with living in Dallas)
Hardaway Jr. (expiring contract, perhaps they’ve told Dallas they’re leaving)
Johnson (expiring contract, perhaps they’ve told Dallas they’re leaving)
Ntilikina (expiring contract, to make dollars work with NYK)
Tyrell Terry (make the cap work)
Get down to 15 men by moving a couple cheap contracts for absurdly protected 2nds and/or seeing if Miami/Warriors would make a deal for Hardaway
Obvious next move: Re-sign Doncic to the max, and he probably insists on a no trade-clause. We would go into the 2022 offseason with Doncic on the last year of his rookie contract and following guaranteed contracts (we could literally opt out of all other rookie contracts if we wanted to save space):
JB
TT
Pritchard
Nesmith
In other words, with JB and Doncic as our superstar duo, we have cap room to build a big three if we stick with the young kids and sign a bunch of one-year contracts, thereby leaving us with only JB and Doncic on the books come 2022 off-season (and probably Pritchard, maybe Nesmith). If Kawhi opts out in 2021, you still have that option in 2021, but otherwise it probably makes more sense to be patient for 2022 with these potential options:
Kawhi
Harden
Durant
Steph Curry
Butler
Beal
If we skip on a major free agent in 2021 and 2022 while still maintaining flexibility going into 2023, here are potential options that offseason:
Jokic
Harden
Durant
Butler
Beal
Porzingis
I don’t know about you guys, but this route sounds better to me than being restricted by JB’s and Tatum’s contracts next off-season (and continuing to be stuck with the Kemba albatross...gotta somehow move him home to the Knicks).